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Do I Believe?

I have been learning lately what it means to “believe” in Jesus Christ our Lord. The question that I should not ask myself is when I officially became a “believer”, but the question should be what is my assurance that I really do “believe”?

If I came to you and informed you that I believed I was a great baseball player, I imagine you would have a few questions to ask me. You might ask me a) what team do you play for? b) what is your batting average? c) how fast is your fast ball? Logically, when a person claims to be a great baseball player, there must be evidence to back up that claim. If there is no evidence for the claim, then it most likely can be assumed that the individual has a misperception of reality.

Some view the Christian journey as a one time event. The person might have verbalized their belief in front of a church, confessed their sins to God, and was baptized. The person views this “conversion” as an insurance policy in which in case there really is a Heaven than “God and I are good”. The person then goes about life exactly the same way prior to this so called “conversion”. This type of belief in Christ is not taught in the Bible. In fact the bible teaches that these people are not true Christians for very long or perhaps were never Christians at all.

"Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away." (Mark 4: 15-17)

The journey of the Christian only begins at the time the individual understands their need for a personal Savior, repents of their sins and turns to Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin, and as an act of obedience is therefore baptized. This is only the beginning of the individual’s faith!!!

So the huge question to ask is what is our assurance that we truly believe? What is the evidence that we are believers? What must we do to determine if we really do believe?

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you— unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test." (2 Corinthians 13:5)

"But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." (Romans 6: 17-18)

"And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." (1 John 3: 23-24)

I know this can be a hard pill to swallow. When we are Christians our lives will reflect it. We are all in a constant process of change and deliverance from our sins. This does not happen overnight but it is a process that lasts our lifetime. Please understand that it is not through our good works that we earn eternal life, but because of our faith our lives will naturally change through the mighty work of the Holy Spirit.

This is something I have had revealed to me as I progressed after my confession at age 13. For a number of years (too many), my life did not match my profession. It was an intellectual commitment to a religion essentially, without any sacrifice of my pet sins, without dedication of my future, without the supernatural work of regeneration that resulted in a new life. I claimed to be a Christian, I went to church every week for years, yet there was nothing different about my heart.

I genuinely believed in Jesus, as do the demons who tremble, but faith alone is not sufficient. I had not been touched by God's hand unto repentance that shook my very core. Without the supernatural touch, my faith was only natural unto reasoning, without power to transform the rebellious heart. Praise be to God, I have assurance of Him living in me, a witness from the heart that did not reside previously of my genuine conversion at age 24.